We salute the innovators who are shaping the world's future through science and technology--and new products that represent benchmarks of engineering.

Engineers, brain surgeons, rocket scientists, soldiers and visionaries of technology gathered at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on Sept. 29, 2005 to celebrate innovation during the POPULAR MECHANICS Breakthrough Awards ceremony. On display were a life-size model of NASA's X-43A scramjet, rocket bikes, groundbreaking products, and more. A highlight of the evening were inspiring remarks by Hugh Herr (shown above), the winner of our Breakthrough Leadership Award. He spoke about his experiences as a mountain climber and double amputee who is dedicated to lifting physical limitations and empowering individuals.

It must have been impossible, in the early years of POPULAR MECHANICS, to imagine that the pace of innovation could be maintained: Aviation, wireless communication, modern physics--all the cornerstones of a new world--were being born at once. Yet, today change comes exponentially faster. The breakthroughs recognized here were chosen after four months of research, hundreds of interviews, and consultation with a top-flight panel of advisers created for the purpose. Together, these advances promise to transform energy production, empower the disabled and open new realms of exploration. Some of the innovations are already saving lives; others will enhance them. The future is sooner than you think.

Sophisticated devices are helping amputees walk and run like never before.

Innovator: Hugh Herr

Hugh Herr, 41, is a leader in the heady new arena of biomechatronics, a place where biology, mechanics and electronics converge to create prosthetics that go far beyond the false limbs of the past. Herr has a personal stake in his work. As a 17-year-old, he was among the country's most gifted rock climbers. Then, following a mountaineering accident, he lost both legs below the knee. The misfortune awoke in Herr a passion for science and engineering. Frustration with his own prosthetics drove him to tackle what he calls the "extremely difficult problem of using modern synthetic materials to replicate the extraordinary systems nature has given us."

More From Popular Mechanics

Herr, who directs the biomechatronics group at MIT's Media Lab, has created an artificial knee with a microprocessor that continually senses the joint's position and the loads applied to the limb. Available from the Icelandic company Ossur since February, the Rheo Knee adapts to the user's walking style, adjusting resistance to allow for a secure, agile gait. Next, he plans to distribute sensors beyond the knee to allow the device to move in response to subtle electrical changes in muscles nearby. Herr is developing exoskeletons to enable spinal-cord-injury patients to regain control of their limbs. Long-term, he aspires to boost the speed and power of even healthy bodies.

Ironically, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan bolster the odds that Herr and his team of 15 researchers will continue to make quick progress. "If you look at the history of prosthetic development, after every major war comes a spike in innovation," says Herr, who is helping to develop new equipment for combat-injured amputees through a $7.2 million Department of Veterans Affairs research project. "Because I'm an end-user myself, I understand the importance of advancing these technologies."

Deployment date: The Rheo Knee is already in use. Paralyzed patients could control robotic exoskeletons in clinical trials in four to six years. (A related concept is being pursued by .)

Zoë, a robotic scientist, searches the desert for unseen life. Next stop: Mars.

Innovator: David Wettergreen

Its name is Zoë, Greek for "life"--and it is for microscopic evidence of life that it prowls Chile's bone-dry Atacama Desert. A largely autonomous, solar-powered aluminum and carbon-fiber robot, Zoë is the creation of David Wettergreen and a team at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. Zoë is in the Atacama to train for the big leagues: The desert may resemble Mars more than any other spot on Earth, and Wettergreen hopes that within 10 years a spacebound descendant of Zoë will become "the first astrobiologist without a spacesuit."

As Zoë's plow flips rocks and furrows the Atacama's harsh soil, a fluorescence imager with four different dyes can reveal the presence of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and DNA, while a near-infrared reflectance spectrometer helps scientists analyze minerals. The team hopes that Zoë will average 2 kilometers per day, which is 10 times the distance covered by the current Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. What sets Zoë apart, however, is the ability to direct its own research. Instead of beaming randomly collected data back to a human team, "Zoë is able to interpret scientific data and make decisions," Wettergreen says. Such autonomy is rooted in sophisticated machine-learning algorithms that allow the robot to weigh proposed experiments against constraints such as time and energy. "We don't want the robots to submit journal articles," jokes Wettergreen, "but robots like Zoë can be instrumental in selecting and collecting data."

Deployment date: Zoë's abilities will be tested in more environments on Earth. A robot with similar or greater autonomy may blast off for Mars within a decade.

Think of it as a terrorism extinguisher. Discharged from a pressurized cylinder, a new powder known as FAST-ACT (First Applied Sorbent Treatment-Against Chemical Threats) neutralizes mustard gas, sarin and other chemical-warfare agents--as well as many industrial chemicals. The powder, developed by Kansas State University chemist Kenneth Klabunde (pictured), consists of nanostructured crystallites of magnesium oxide (MgO) and titanium oxide (TiO2). Each grain's jagged edges multiply the powder's surface area and porosity, making it highly reactive. Common MgO powder has a surface area of 30 square meters per gram; with FAST-ACT's nanostructuring, that grows to 320 square meters. "Seventeen grams of the powder has the surface area of a football field," Klabunde says.

More From Popular Mechanics

Sprayed at a chlorine gas leak, the powder knocks the vapor to earth, leaving a harmless solid to be swept up. When pitted against VX nerve gas in tests at the U.S. Soldier Biological Chemical Command, the nanopowder quickly prevailed, converting 99.9 percent of the killer gas into a less hazardous solid.

"Instead of a simple defensive technology like duct tape and plastic, this allows the user to be active in neutralizing a threat," says Stephen J. Lee, director of organic chemistry in the Chemical Sciences Division of the U.S. Army Research Office. "It is one of the first nanotechnology products to make it to the marketplace. Ultimately, it will save lives."

Last November, when the unmanned X-43A jet screamed to Mach 9.6--nearly 7000 mph--it didn't just set a new world speed record. It opened the door to cheaper, safer and more reliable space access (and one heck of a fast cruise missile). What makes the scramjet special? "All other air-breathing systems--turbojets, your car--compress airflow to raise pressure and temperature, but the scramjet doesn't have any spinning parts, like a compressor or turbine. It uses shock waves to compress the airflow," explains Randy Voland, lead scramjet researcher at NASA's Langley Research Center, who shares the award with others from Langley, NASA Dryden (which managed test flights) and private firms. "This is not some pie-in-the-sky notion," Voland says. "We've proven we can do it."

Deployment date:Scramjets could launch satellites into space as early as 2015. Human payloads? Maybe by 2020.

Silicon-based solar panels remain rigid, bulky and expensive a half-century after their introduction. Alan Heeger, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, is working to change that. He sees the answer in the bottles of colored liquids--semiconducting polymers suspended in solution--that he developed and keeps in his office at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "They look like inks," Heeger says. "That's the point. They can be treated as inks."

Heeger and his colleagues at Konarka, the Lowell, Mass.-based company he co-founded, can "print" strips of photovoltaic (PV) plastic as thin as photographic film. As with traditional PV panels, sunlight is converted into electrical energy. The advantage over traditional crystalline silicon on a glass substrate: Heeger's power plastic is 100 times thinner, as well as more pliable, cheaper and easier to mass-produce. Imagine electricity-generating awnings, tents, roofs and even clothing. "Solar energy is going to happen," says Heeger. "It will happen sooner and on a larger scale if we can provide a lower-cost technology."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Deployment date: Heeger points to a "clear technical road map" that will put product in people's hands within two years.

A brain-computer interface empowers those paralyzed by injury or disease.

Innovator: John Donoghue

How does the brain transform thought into action? That question drives the work of John Donoghue, chairman of Brown University's Department of Neuroscience and co-founder of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. Recognizing that many people who have lost the ability to move their limbs due to spinal cord, nerve or muscle damage have intact brains, Donoghue and his colleagues devised a way to translate thoughts into computer commands.

In Cyberkinetics' BrainGate system, now being tested in two patients, a silicon array the size of a baby aspirin is implanted into the brain's primary motor cortex, which is responsible for limb movement. The chip--which contains 100 gold electrodes, each thinner than a human hair--is wired to a computer that interprets electrical signals from the neurons, allowing the subject to control a cursor and, by extension, other equipment. Within two months, the first subject, a 25-year-old who had become paralyzed three years earlier, was able to open e-mail, channel surf on a television and turn lights off and on. By enabling the man to control a computer merely by thinking about it, Donoghue and his team provided him with increased autonomy. In the future, the system's capabilities will be expanded, and the system will become wireless.

"What John and his group have done is a first in medical science," says Roy Aaron, a fellow Brown professor who is working with Donoghue on a Department of Veterans Affairs-funded research program. (Hugh Herr is also involved; see ".") "Someday, the technology may allow the paralyzed to move their own muscles," says Aaron.

Deployment date: Cyberkinetics began its second pilot trial of the BrainGate system in March. With continued success, FDA approval could follow within five years.

Before his 44th Army Corps Support Battalion shipped out to Iraq, Capt. Michael Pottratz worried about increasing attacks on Humvees. During training, Pottratz saw his soldiers struggling to fire 25-pound M249 machine guns from a moving vehicle, poking them out of a window and hanging on as the weapons blasted 700 rounds per minute.

Then Spc. David Russell mentioned his father's Seattle-area welding shop, Advanced Welding and Manufacturing. Within two months, Pottratz and David Russell Sr., an Army veteran, had designed, built and tested a machined-aluminum gun mount that rolls on ball bearings, giving the gunner the stability and accuracy he needs. The small welding shop churned out 45 of the mounts, equipping the entire unit.

Other commanders soon started placing orders with Russell; there are now 160 of the gun mounts in Iraq. The low-tech innovation has already saved soldiers' lives, says Capt. Matthew Price, commander of the 542nd Maintenance Division, who bought 15 during his unit's last stint in Taji, Iraq. "When we rolled out with a soldier mounted on top of the vehicle, it sent a message. It was a huge deterrent."

Deployment date: Current. Amtech, a military contractor, is working with Russell to expand production.

Hydrogen-Energy Leap

Using microbes to generate hydrogen could speed a shift toward renewable fuels.

Innovators: Stephen Grot, Hong Liu, Bruce Logan

"We talk about a hydrogen economy, but most hydrogen is made using fossil fuels," says Penn State professor of environmental engineering Bruce Logan. Working with Hong Liu, a postdoctoral researcher, and Stephen Grot, founder of Ion Power, Logan has devised a way to produce hydrogen while cleaning wastewater. "It's based on a microbial process that's been going on for billions of years," he says.

Logan had been working on a fuel cell that generated electricity as microbes broke down organic matter. Grot suggested rejiggering the apparatus to produce hydrogen instead of electricity. The BioElectrochemically Assisted Microbial Reactor (BEAMR) cleans water while yielding four times the hydrogen of fermentation alone.

Burning crops kills disease? Not so fast, said this high-school student. Then she overturned the conventional wisdom.

PM Young Achiever Award: PM Sarah Mims

Sarah Mims isn't the first amateur scientist to fly a kite to test a hypothesis. Taking a cue from Ben Franklin--but skipping the lightning--Mims (pictured) used a nylon kite to send a homemade air sampler aloft and capture smoke blowing onto the Gulf Coast from Central American agricultural fires. The Seguin, Texas, high-school student used NASA satellite imagery and NOAA atmospheric models to time the sampling. Later, her microscope revealed a surprise: live fungal spores. Mims's discovery, published last year in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Environment, challenged the common practice of burning diseased crops.

Her work has earned Mims scholarships and awards, including First Grand Prize at the Texas Junior Academy of Science's annual competition. Now a 19-year-old college sophomore, Mims plans to continue her fungal-spore research. "I want to do more research on which spores are transported and what crops are affected," she says. Mims sees a possible health angle to her discovery. "It's well known that smoke causes respiratory complications, but we don't know exactly why. Part of the answer could be spores."

Deployment date: Mims hopes to create an awareness campaign for farmers. "I'd like to develop a Web site that would include a brochure with alternatives to burning diseased crops."

It's only natural for a guy who builds rocket engines for a living to want to feel the thrust of one of his own creations. "For years we test these things--but it'll be a long time before any of us go into space," says POPULAR MECHANICS subscriber Tim Pickens, president of Orion Propulsion, an aerospace company in Madison, Ala. "So I do things that are earthbound to have some fun." Such as? Building rocket-powered bicycles with his 13-year-old daughter, Sarah.

Pickens outfits the two-wheelers with hybrid rocket motors, which keep the solid fuel and liquid oxidizer separate until the last moment. His bike, whose front brake control has been turned into a throttle, burns roofing tar with a boost from nitrous oxide (yes, laughing gas). It spews a yellow-white flame and hits 60 mph in 6 seconds. Sarah's pink chopper releases cold carbon dioxide and can go 30 mph. Says Dad: "She can't have fire until she's 18."

General Motors keeps finding ways to advance pushrod camshaft engines. The company's latest move is to adapt variable valve timing--common in overhead camshaft designs to maximize performance at both lower and higher speeds--to an engine with a single camshaft mounted in the block. GM's 240-hp 3.9-liter V6, introduced in the 2006 Chevrolet Impala (base price: $27,530), is the first such two-valve system. It soon will have Displacement on Demand, improving fuel efficiency by disabling half the cylinders when they're not needed. gm.com

Most consumer-priced electronic measuring devices employ sound waves for the actual measurements, using lasers only for accurate pointing. The Stanley FatMax TLM100 ($100) is the first true laser measuring device meant for the masses. The precision is impressive: a quarter-inch at a maximum distance of 100 ft. stanleytools.com

Apple's new Tiger operating system ($129) doesn't look much different from previous versions of OS X, but its Spotlight search tool changes the way users find data on their computers. Spotlight goes beyond file names to comb through the contents of everything from e-mail to text documents to photos and movie files. Spotlight continually categorizes information from all locations, just like an online search engine. apple.com

Most front airbags resemble large pillows. Toyota's twin-chamber version looks more like a hot dog bun. In an accident, the passenger's head is sandwiched by two chambers, reducing the risk of head and neck injuries. It debuts in the 2006 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350 (starting around $30,000 for the IS 250). lexus.com

The First Alert OneLink ($90), a combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, wirelessly relays news of an emergency to every alarm in the home. Each OneLink unit even announces where the trouble was first detected. firstalert.com

Microsoft kick-starts gaming's next era with the Xbox 360 ($399), a high-definition machine powered by a triple-core CPU. All Xbox 360 games integrate with the online community, and players can buy extra levels and the like online. A 20GB drive can be swapped between machines. xbox360.com

No, the TomTom Go ($899) isn't exactly new. This miniature car navigation system came out in 2004 with its current, elegant design. Why an award now? Because 2005's Go 700 stuffs more power and functionality in the package--for $100 less than the old model. It features a 2.5GB hard drive preloaded with complete U.S. and Canadian maps, and it can link via Bluetooth with a phone for hands-free voice dialing as well as services--free at press time--that include real-time traffic data. tomtom.com

Dual-core computing, a staple of supercomputing, puts two processors (or "cores") on a single microchip. Now it's coming to home PCs, where it will help computers handle multiple multimedia applications. "It's like having two hands to juggle with instead of just one," says Mike Goddard, AMD's director of Advanced Technology Planning. Both Intel and AMD launched dual-core chips in 2005. But AMD's X2 chips ($354-$902) maintain the same profile as previous chips--making dual-core processing a drop-in upgrade to existing computer models. Intel's entries require new motherboard architecture. amd.com

Sling Media's Slingbox ($250) is simple, yet brilliant. Plug any media source into Slingbox. Plug Slingbox into your home network router. Get the content streamed to any computer on the network. You can even stream data over the Internet--accessing your home files from anywhere. slingmedia.com

Since their Reagan-era introduction, cordless power tools have drilled, screwed and pounded their heads into the wall to try to match corded-tool performance. The Milwaukee V28 series comes the closest yet, making its mark as the first major tool line to use a lithium-ion battery instead of a nickel-cadmium, producing 28 volts instead of the competition's 18 volts. The hammer drill, 6.5-in. circular saw, reciprocating saw ($419 each), band saw kit ($449) and impact wrench kit ($479) all stand up to hard use. (A four-tool combo kit runs $729.) milwaukeetool.com